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Paula Schaeffer
| lastseen = }} :"This job was all she ever wanted to do. She never even got a chance to do it." ::— Tony Almeida, "Day 2: 11:00am-12:00pm" Paula Schaeffer was an analyst at CTU Los Angeles during Day 2. Although it was her dream job, the threat of a nuclear bomb going off in Los Angeles terrified her and made her doubt her abilities. After the attack on CTU, Paula was left crushed under a girder. Paramedics wanted to take her to the hospital but George Mason insisted that she stay because she was the only one with the encryption codes necessary to find all their data on the nuclear weapon. She was awakened and managed to give the code, but because of the delay in her medical treatment she died of her wounds. Before Day 2 Paula grew up in Los Angeles and was recruited into CTU Los Angeles by Tony Almeida She waited two years to get assigned to CTU Los Angeles before doing so. She had over fifty partitions on her personal CTU system, including one labelled "Etudes," Day 2 Initial threat Paula worked as a systems analyst at CTU Los Angeles at the beginning of Day 2. At the start of the day, she upgraded the SIM software, telling Tony Almeida and George Mason of this. She tried to assist Michelle with some of her workload, but Michelle told Paula that she was "trying too hard", and that she should focus on her own work. Mason called a meeting with all department heads, where he said that he got off a call with NSA and Division in which he learnt that there is a nuclear bomb under terrorist control in Los Angeles set to go off within the day. He told everyone not to communicate with anyone outside of their security protocols. After the meeting, George was taken aside by Tony, who said that he had still not contacted Jack. Mason said that NSA got hold of him, and Tony questioned why Jack could help with this situation. Mason said it likely had something to do with one of his previous covers. Tony soon told Paula to open another socket for him, and to go see Mason in the conference room. However, Paula sat there unresponsive. After a few moments she said that she cannot work well under pressure, and suggested brining someone else in. He said that no one knew the system as well as her, and that she should take things one task at a time. Paula agreed, and left. She was present in the meeting with Jack Bauer, and told him about Marshall Goren who was the one witness against their suspect, Joseph Wald. As Jack arrived near Wald's yard, Paula tracked his vehicle. Tony approached her and asked if she had a Division update, but she asked if they should be working from outside of Los Angeles. He told her to try to forget about that. As part of Jack's cover as "Jack Roush" with Eddie Grant and his men, Tony, Michelle and Paula had to upload some fake records of Jack so it would be convincing to the men in case they did a background check. However, the terrorists began to access the data before the CTU team had properly uploaded everything they needed to. Paula asked if Tony had uploaded backlogs about Gainsville, but he said he did not yet have the proper clearance codes. Paula realized she would have to forge the server portal and hope that the gang do not look too closely at the data. Luckily they got the data up in time and Jack's cover was secured. After Michelle and Tony had started to notice bad static on all CTU phone lines, Paula informed them that she had tried a filter and it did not go; she thought that the problem might not be the CTU systems. Tony told her to call the phone company to sort it out, and then to switch all priority calls to wireless protocol. At 10:15am, Tony told Paula that he had to take her off SIM analysis because she had to transfer all data relevant to the nuke threat onto NSA servers, as per an order from Eric Rayburn. She said that she would have to use Mason's office, and to open a new encryption code. Tony told her to do whatever she had to. Paula was later in the restroom when she was approached by Michelle, who asked if she was finished exporting the files as had been requested. Paula said that it would be done soon. Noticing something wrong, Michelle asked Paula if she was alright. Paula said that she was scared for her family and friends if the bomb goes off. Attack at CTU Just before the end of the hour, Tony and Michelle discovered the bomb threat against CTU. As everyone was getting out, Tony noticed Paula still in Mason's office. He ran up to get her down, and she said that she was almost done with the encryption. Tony insisted that she had to leave, but Paula said that she could not lose the data. He pulled her out of the room and down the stairs just as the bomb went off. They fell down the stairs, but were amongst the survivors of the disastrous attack. Paula was severely injured in the bombing a few minutes later. Tony and some EMTs found her, and told her to blink if she could hear them, which she did. He promised to get her out, and asked a rescue worker about the best way to do so. He told Tony that a crane would be too dangerous because it could lead all the rubble to come down on her, and the best way to do it would be brick by brick. Tony reluctantly began to take the rubble away to free Paula. When Tony went back to help unearth Paula, part of the structure on top fell through on top of her. When she was eventually freed, a paramedic told Tony that Paula was haemorrhaging internally. He said that unless she was taken to the ER she would bleed to death. As she was being taken away, Mason arrived and demanded that Paula be brought back to consciousness so that she can tell them the encryption codes of the files sent to the NSA. Tony said that someone else could find the files, but Mason reminded him that Paula was the only one who knew the code and if she had to be taken to surgery and put under anaesthesia, it had to happen after they got the code. The doctor said that he could give Paula epinephrine to temporarily raise her blood pressure level. Mason instructed the doctor to do it. The paramedic then told Mason that Paula was awake. She asked what had happened, and Mason quickly told her about the attack before asking for the encryption codes. When she did not respond Michelle tried to help remind her, and Paula said that she remembered. She told Michelle to check in her subfolders, but Michelle found that it was divided into over fifty partitions. Paula said that it was in one labelled "Etudes", and Michelle managed to find it. Mason told Paula that what she had done would save a lot of lives, and she was wheeled away by the paramedics with the aim to go to the hospital. However, she began to flatline seconds later and despite their efforts, she died. Background information and notes * "Etudes," the name of one of the partitions on Paula's computer, is a French word meaning "studies." Live appearances See also Category:Characters Category:Day 2 characters Category:CTU personnel Category:CTU intelligence agents Category:Deceased characters